Members of the Vermont House and Senate are now pushing a questionable tactic to get around the electoral college in presidential votes.
The objective is to change the intent of the federal constitution by using the national popular vote as the electing method.
The 2000 Gore/Bush outcome is the latest motivator, even though that outcome might have been due more to the Supreme Court denying a Florida recount than to the real actions of Florida voters themselves.
That same year, 2000, Republican primary voters in Vermont gave McCain a 2:1 edge over Bush. The state Republican convention, however, gave McCain nary a delegate to the national convention held later in the year, thereby denying a grassroots result.
A recent news report in The Commons [“A dam's fate,” March 30] describes an analysis by Vermont State officials of safety issues at Sweet Pond in Guilford. Development of a ”worst-case scenario” assumes flood damage to six downstream residences should the old dam fail. Determining this risk to be...
The Garland School in West Brattleboro hosts its second annual May Day Fair on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Admission to the festival is free and features plenty of family fun. Come dance, join the parade, bid on a wide range of goods and services at...
Aside from the actual meltdowns themselves, two different kinds of nuclear accidents are just as bad. One is an explosion ejecting spent fuel, typically at a reprocessing plant. The other is a spent fuel fire, such as in the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. We could lump them together and call them “dangerous fuel accidents.” Each of our worldwide 432 commercial nuclear reactors adds one reactor year for every year it runs, so the various nuclear reactors...
Yesterday, as the sun was coming up, I was out on the porch hanging laundry on the pulley line when a battered Ford pickup turned in my lane. It was odd to have a visitor at such an early hour, and I watched as the truck slowly ascended the hill and stopped at the woodshed. An old man stepped out. He was wearing baggy denim overalls, a tattered Carhartt jacket, muck boots, and a Red Sox cap. He was toting...
Registration has begun for the seventh annual Way to Go! Commuter Challenge, which will take place May 16-20. Online registration is fast and easy at www.waytogovt.org. This event encourages the use of healthier, more earth-friendly transportation, and less expensive alternatives to driving alone. Everyone who commits to walk, bike, telecommute, carpool, take the bus or use any alternative to driving solo will receive free giveaways and be entered in multiple drawings to win prizes - iPods, a Neuton battery-powered mower,
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Martha Durell Anderberg, 61, of Newfane. Died April 20 at her home. Wife of Larry Anderberg. Mother of Jesse Anderberg, of Brattleboro; and Andrew Anderberg, of Boston. Sister of Stephen Durell of East Brookfield, Mass.; Michael Durell of Sharpsburg, Ga.; David Durell of West Brookfield, Mass.; Richard Anderberg of Newfane, and Jack Anderberg of...
The Selectboard signed a revised letter intended to communicate the town's list of concerns around the closing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon. The Safe & Green Campaign, an anti-nuclear advocacy group, drafted the original letter. It has presented the suggested text to all towns within 20 miles of Vermont Yankee. According to Bob Bady, Vermont coordinator for Safe & Green, 15 towns, including Brattleboro, have signed a version of the letter. The board had tabled the letter...
“We'll do all we can,” said Congressman Peter Welch. That's what the Vermont Democrat said as he took time from his statewide Budget Priorities tour last week to witness the aftermath of the Brooks House fire up close. A five-alarm electrical fire late in the night of April 17 rendered the 140-year old Brooks House uninhabitable. The blaze displaced as many as 60 residents and 10 business. The congressman spoke with town officials, municipal employees, and community leaders at the...
Last week was spring vacation week for area schools, so the sports schedule was relatively light. That's by necessity. Between religious observances, class trips, college visits, and other activities, it would have been tough to field a team at some schools. But the Brattleboro Colonels and the Bellows Falls Terriers still scheduled a baseball game for last Thursday. Both teams were shorthanded, but the bigger problem was trying to play a baseball game when the temperature is in the low...
The Windham Housing Trust (WHT) is about to become a much bigger entity, and get a new name in the process. At its annual meeting last Thursday, WHT members unanimously voted to approve assuming stewardship over most of the properties of the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust (RACLT), and change the name of the newly-combined nonprofit organization to the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust on May 1. Of the state's nine community land trusts, Windham Housing Trust had the smallest...
The day after Entergy announced its intention to sue the state of Vermont, the New Orleans-based corporation took out a full-page ad in all of Vermont's daily newspapers explaining why its leaders feel it is necessary to file a federal lawsuit to keep the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon open for another 20 years. The ad was in the form of a letter from Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard, and it is the latest installment of the public...
Firefighters extinguished the flames. Now the Brattleboro community faces a long, and details-uncertain, rebuilding process. The Brooks House, an iconic downtown building constructed in 1871 after fire devastated the block between High and Elliot streets, fell victim to an electrical fire the night of April 17. The fire, caused by a building staple through an electrical wire, smoldered for an estimated 48 hours above a vacant apartment before bursting into flames damaging the building's top two floors. Jonathan Chase, owner...
Building a more detailed argument for their April 18 request for an injunction to keep the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station operating during legal action, the two Entergy Nuclear subsidiaries that own and operate the Vermont Yankee substation have filed a memorandum of law in U.S. District Court in Burlington. Friday's filing by attorneys Robert B. Hemley and Matthew B. Byrne of Gravel and Shea in Burlington includes more than 2,320 pages of documents ranging from news reports about the...
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) and Strolling of the Heifers announce the finalists for the 2011 Business Plan Competition. From the 39 submissions received by the April 11 deadline, the selection committee chose 20 finalists as follows below. Finalists in the “General Business Existing Business” category are (in alphabetical order): Dreamcatcher Entertainment by Bill Forchion; Kaye Audio, Inc., by George Kaye; Laura Zindel Design by Laura Zindel; Saxtons River Distillery, LLC, by Christian Stromberg; and Spirit Hill Farm Back...
Green Up Day 2011 will take place on Saturday, May 7. Vermont was the first state to designate a special day for cleaning up the entire state, 41 years ago in 1970. Anyone can help. Arrange a group or just show up at one of the Windham County locations below. Pick up bags, sign in your area of clean up, and have a complimentary coffee and doughnuts or even breakfast. For safety, wear bright colors, sturdy shoes and gloves. Athens:
After a heated, and sleep-deprivation-fueled, discussion, Selectboard members last Tuesday voted to table until May 3 a proposal to revise the board's Rules of Conduct for meetings and hearings. The discussion came at the end of a more-than-three-hour board meeting that, in turn,came on the heels two very hectic days dealing with the aftermath of the five-alarm Brooks House fire. Selectboard member David Gartenstein requested the board talk about revising the rules in light of a recent confusion over the...
Last week's fire at the Brooks House fire made The Mole's Eye's future uncertain. But the loss of the bar's liquor license may definitively seal the bar's fate, as the Selectboard last Tuesday voted unanimously to not renew it. Since the 1970s, The Mole's Eye has made its home in the oak-paneled Brooks House basement - the site of various drinking establishments since the 1930s. Owner Todd Tousley bought the bar last April. His first- and third-class liquor licenses expire...
Plaintiffs Entergy Vermont Yankee, LLC (ENVY) and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (ENOI) respectfully submit this memorandum of law in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction to preserve the status quo pending the conclusion of this litigation and to prohibit Defendants from forcing cessation of operations at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. This case involves a challenge to Vermont's attempted usurpation of federal authority over continued operation of the Vermont Yankee Station, which is operated by plaintiff ENOI...
The site of the old Sunoco gas station on the corner of Westminster Road and Route 121 is now in the hands of the village. It was sold to the village for $1, as agreed in an updated purchase and sales agreement between the former owners, A.R. Sandri Inc., of Greenfield, Mass., and the village, according to Village Trustee Louise Luring. A planning grant of $18,360 from the Vermont Community Development Program has been awarded to the village to hire...
The photo was one of the first color images taken and shared by our family and featured three little boys wearing top hats and ties posing together for an Easter memory. It became a classic in my family for many reasons. Each year the trio photo reminds me of so many positive things represented by the Easter season. Good things do come in threes. What does Easter mean to you? Regardless of your spiritual strength - and I hope it...
Ever since the Earl of Sandwich demanded his food be brought to him between two slices of bread because he did not wish to interrupt his cribbage game or get grease on the playing cards, people have been creating and perfecting the sandwich. And so, to kick off the 10th annual Strolling of the Heifers weekend, the organization has sent out the call to all sandwich aficionados to enter the Ultimate New England Sandwich Competition, a culinary competition that will...
On Sunday, May 1, students from Brattleboro and across New England will converge at UI&U's Brattleboro Academic Center to take part in the university's Bachelor of Arts Weekend Option commencement. Former UI&U B.A. core faculty member Rickey Gard Diamond, contributing editor at Vermont Woman, will serve as the guest speaker for the event. As students in the weekend residency option, the new graduates met one weekend each month at the Brattleboro Center and completed the remainder of their coursework online.
The Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) announces the launch of its new campaign “Parents, pass it on…The blunt truth about marijuana,” and and a new website, www.theblunttruth.org. At theblunttruth.org, parents can find information and resources to help them talk about marijuana use with middle school and high school-aged teenagers. Nationally, more than 4,300 youths per day used at least one kind of illicit drug for the first time, primarily marijuana (3,577 new initiates on an average day). Forty percent of...
On April 20, United Way of Windham County and the Green Mountain Chapter of the American Red Cross sponsored an evening of agency support to help the displaced residents of the Brooks House begin the arduous task of rebuilding their lives. Following the loss of their homes in the April 18 fire, more than half of the displaced Brooks House residents came to the Gibson-Aiken Center - which served as the Red Cross's emergency shelter - to meet with representatives...
Rep. Richard Marek, D-Newfane, recently asked himself this question: “What can the state do if Entergy continues to operate Vermont Yankee past March 21, 2012?” That is the date beyond which the company's Certificate of Public Good (CPG) expires. Marek has unveiled a draft of a bill that would penalize a nuclear plant operating without a current CPG through a fine of $100,000 a day for each day it runs. The bill would also require the plant turn over any...
Grace Cottage Hospital is offering several specially-priced blood tests as a prelude to the May 14 “Spring Into Health” 5K race and Community Health Fair in Townshend. These specially-priced blood tests are available through May 9, Monday-Saturday, 7-10 a.m., in the Grace Cottage Hospital laboratory, 185 Grafton Rd. Walk-ins are welcome; no appointment is necessary. The blood tests include: a comprehensive metabolic and lipid profile (14-hour fast required) for $20, PSA (prostate) for $20, TSH (thyroid) for $10, and Vitamin...
In Overture to a Thursday Morning - the first solo theater performance written, directed, choreographed, and acted in its entirety by former Windham County resident Kali Quinn - themes of loss, identity, and family secrecy merge in a multimedia performance rife with visual and aural complexity. Overture to a Thursday Morning will be performed in a four-night run at Putney's Sandglass Theater (17 Kimball Hill, 802-387-4051), Thursday, April 28, through Sunday, May 1. April 28-30 performances begin at 8 p.m.,
Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell and his colleagues have been preparing for the day when Entergy would claim the state had overstepped its boundary and into federal territory in regulating the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station. Entergy did not disappoint, and filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Burlington on April 18, claiming Vermont had overstepped its boundary and into federal territory. “Litigation is by far the least preferred approach,” Richard Smith, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities, wrote...
When times are tough, Brattleboro always comes together. That's the premise behind a two back-to-back celebrations planned by musicians, area civic organizations, and media in town. On Friday, May 6, during Gallery Walk, the community will join for “A Brooks House Party: Unity for Community.” This event will be a benefit for those left homeless by the fire, but it will also serve as a reminder to everyone that downtown Brattleboro is still alive and well. From 5 to 9...
It takes a village to raise a child, so the saying goes. So what happens when youth with disabilities get too old to continue attending school and enter the community, leaving behind the supportive and social opportunities provided by the educational system? A group of Saxtons River residents are addressing that gap with a restaurant, The Dish on Main, opened in December. It serves breakfast and lunch. Saxtons River Partners, a nonprofit with a board comprised of seven local residents...
On Nov. 2, 2010, three months and 15 days before he was found frozen to death in his house on Round Hill Road in West Townshend, widely known musician and teacher David “Dave” Shapiro was also well-enough known to 260 Townshend voters who elected him a justice of the peace, along with a slate of six others, for a two-year term. And that office, in a roundabout way, was the main reason the 58-year-old Shapiro was found. There is no...
Music • BMC concert benefits Brooks House relief efforts: On Sunday, May 1, at 4 p.m., pianist Chonghyo Shin with flutist Alex Ogle, violinist Michelle Liechti, and cellist Sabine Rhyne will present a program of Beethoven sonatas at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. On the program are Ludwig van Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 (1808); Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 (1812); and Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24...
On the night of April 17, Shawnna O'Connor left her fourth floor apartment in the Brooks House on Main Street, thinking the fire alarm blaring through the building was false. Juniper, her seven-year-old cat, was asleep on the bed. She ignored the alarm. When O'Connor reached the street, she said people were pointing at flames coming from the building's roof. “And my heart just broke,” said O'Connor. Authorities wouldn't allow O'Connor back into her apartment until Wednesday. The five-alarm fire...
I have lived in Vermont long enough to know that as soon as I let out that long end-of-winter exhalation, more times than not we are slammed with a late storm. But I am an optimist. I planted spinach and radishes, and for the first time in ages I am trying my hand at starting flower seeds. The little bulbs I put in the ground last fall are just starting to poke their green noses up amidst the brown rubble...
A youth showcase of student films, music and artwork, organized by Youth Services, is taking place at the Latchis Main Theater in Brattleboro on Saturday, April 30, from 4-6:30 p.m. Designed to give youth ages 15-21 a place to highlight their creativity in various mediums, this event's focus is on communicating youth perspective to the larger community. One highlight of the afternoon is the debut of the student film, Noah by Compass School senior, Austin Rice, of Brattleboro. “Noah” is...